Viewpoint 2020 from Semiconductor Packaging News

Written by Santosh Kumar, Principal Analyst and Director Packaging, Assembly & Substrates and Cédric Malaquin, Technology & Market Analyst, Yole Développement (Yole) – Multiple breakthrough technologies have shaken up the RF industry in 2019. Just to name a few in the consumer market, we have seen the introduction of 5G in mobile devices, the resurrection of Ultra-Wide Band technology through the Apple iPhone 11 and the impressive Soli’s gesture control radar finally coming to life in the Google Pixel 4. In all cases, the packaging industry has been a key enabler in delivering technologies, such as antenna in package, needed to comply with small form factors.

In its 2019 market report collection*, Yole Développement projected the nascent 5G RF Front-End market to reach $1.5B in 2020, of the $18.5B overall RF Front-End and connectivity mobile phone market, while the wireless infrastructure RF Front End market is expected to exceed $2B. In the automotive market segment, radar along with connectivity, GNSS and V2X have been forecast to be worth $8B in 2020 at the module level.

For the RF Front end module assembly packaging / assembly, 5G requires package innovation as it creates the business opportunity. Mobile devices create more challenges for RF FEM packaging due to, on one hand, increasing the number of RF components to support 5G bands, while on the other hand constraining the form factor… Full article